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General: No further withdrawals in Iraq

WASHINGTON - The United States probably will not pull more forces from Iraq this year beyond those announced over the weekend, the No. 2 U.S. general in Iraq said Monday.

About 12,000 U.S. soldiers will leave Iraq by September, officials said Sunday.

"What we have right now is what we plan on having for the foreseeable future," Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin said in a video news conference from Baghdad.

"It will depend on whether security trends continue to improve or whether things begin to take a turn in the other direction, but I'm fairly confident that we'll be able to maintain what we have," Austin said.

The withdrawals, which most likely will come from Baghdad and Anbar province, once main battlefields, are the first step in fulfilling President Obama's pledge to end America's role in the war.